Jaguars relish return to roots for workout

PETER.WILLOTT@STAUGUSTINE.COM Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley reacts to a play during a team practice held at Bartram Trail High School on Monday, July 28, 2014. More than 3,300 attended the practice at the school.

PETER.WILLOTT@STAUGUSTINE.COM Jaxson de Ville, the mascot of the Jacksonville Jaguars, waves to the crowd gathered to watch the team practice at Bartram Trail High School on Monday, July 28, 2014. More than 3,300 attended the practice at the school.

Jaguars coach Gus Bradley had a message for the fans at Bartram Trail.

“We’re going to do this again, I can tell you that much,” said Bradley following Monday night’s practice.

The Jaguars conducted their fourth practice of training camp at Bartram Trail in front of a crowd of 3,329 fans. Registration for the event had been closed for days. The attendance total was over 1,000 more than any of the first three practices which were also open to the public.

Bartram Trail had experience hosting an NFL team. The school was chosen by the NFL to be New England’s practice site in the days leading up to Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005. The NFL spent $250,000 to install new grass and put in a new drainage system.

“That field is as good as it was when they left here,” said Bartram Trail athletic director Barry Craig, who has held the position since the school opened in 2000.

“This was a little more exciting, because it’s our team. Having the Patriots here was great, but to have a team here that we’re all fans of was special. The Jaguars have been great to work with.”

The event allowed the players the chance to get back to their roots, while also performing on a high quality field.

“They have a great field here,” Jaguars tight end Marcedes Lewis said. “It reminded me of Friday Night Lights in high school. It was good to get under the lights. We’ll have a couple under the lights this year. I thought we had an extra boost of energy. Gus is all about being spontaneous. He wants to get us out of our element to get better.”

Bradley set the tone of the day by showing high school pictures of players around EverBank Field. The team conducted a walk through in the morning and had meetings prior to leaving for Bartram Trail.

“We showed all their high school pictures,” Bradley said. “We flashed them up on the television so there was Marcedes Lewis when he was in high school. But, when we had our team meeting this afternoon, we talked about what we had to get accomplished.”

The high school theme added some levity to the day.

“It was fun,” Lewis said. “I don’t know where they got that high school picture of me from. Everybody had a few good laughs. It was good to see that picture again. It’s been awhile. It’s funny to see guys when they were 16 years old.”

The Jaguars did have to adjust their routine significantly to make the practice function well. The team got dressed in a huge white tent that served as a locker room set up 50 yards away from the field. The Jaguars also were a bit more cramped having one field to work on instead of the three at their facility.

“It went really smooth,” Bradley said. “It was a great space here. I didn’t see any issues with it.”

The practice was controlled mostly by the defense in the 11-on-11 team drills.

“I thought the defense played really well,” Bradley said. “It was really crisp and I saw a lot of our fundamentals showing at all positions. That’s how it felt on defense. They really showed up.”

The offense connected on several big plays in Sunday’s practice, but found it much harder a day later. Bradley believes that’s a good sign for the balance of his team.

“That means both sides are doing well,” Bradley said. “The other day, I thought the offense really came off the ball in 9-on-7 and was establishing the line of scrimmage. The defense came back and said, ‘Not tonight,’ and attacked it like that.”

The Jaguars will be off today before reporting back for their first practice in full pads on Wednesday. The practice starts at 9:55 a.m. and is open to the public.

The Bartram Trail excursion was a first for the Jaguars and now the team will settle back into a routine for the remainder of camp.

“It’s fun to play under the lights and in front of a nice crowd,” Jaguars linebacker Paul Posluszny said. “It was a good experience to come to a different environment. It’s enough of a change to add a different element into practice to see how we do. We’re not that far into camp, but it was a nice change up.”